Spotlight hotter for prep stars
The scene in the Minneapolis hotel on Saturday reminded LeFlore basketball coach Otis Hughley of being backstage at a rock concert -- dozens of people parading up and down the halls who had no connection with the Rattlers or any of the other high school basketball teams staying at the hotel, all of whom had just participated in a televised tournament at the Target Center.
As someone who is familiar with professional sports -- he's coached professionally in China and has contacts in the NBA -- none of it was surprising for Hughley. People want to get close to elite athletes.
"I knew there was the potential in an NBA city that there could be a problem," Hughley said. "It was a televised game, you've got two NBA prospects on the team ... there's no telling what can happen."
There was a problem, of course. As Hughley and the Rattlers learned the next day, a 19-year-old woman told police she'd been sexually assaulted at the hotel that night by a player in town for the tournament. Though one of the room numbers she gave police had been occupied by three LeFlore players, she said upon seeing the players that they had not been involved.
Hughley did not hazard a guess this week at what may have happened at that Minneapolis hotel or why the room number of three of his players was given to police. But his description of the scene at the hotel before he and his coaching staff called for lights out on Saturday night speaks volumes about the difference between statewide prominence and the national spotlight.
The increased national exposure that high school athletics has received in recent years is forcing many prep athletes to grow up extremely quickly. The college recruiting process is an education in and of itself, but it doesn't stop there.
Television is upping the ante, broadcasting more high school games and delving into the personal lives of 17-year-old kids with reality shows such as "Two-a-Days," an MTV series that followed the Hoover High football team for two years, and "Varsity Inc.," the ESPN show that is currently following the West Monroe (La.) Rebels.
And elite high school basketball teams like LeFlore are traveling all over the country, racking up frequent flyer miles and hotel rewards points and playing before national audiences.
Is all this a good thing or a bad thing? Probably a little of both.
Travel such as that done by the LeFlore squad can broaden a young person's horizons -- former Rattler Chris Blake said the team's trips last season were the first time he'd ever been on an airplane -- and the increased exposure may help some of those athletes attract scholarship offers and improve their futures. It has certainly helped Hughley do just that at LeFlore, where 33 of the 35 players who have graduated in his four years at the school have signed college scholarships.
But with all the exposure comes a certain amount of celebrity, which can lead us to forget that these are kids. We put them in adult-type situations and expect them to respond as adults. And sometimes they learn adult-type lessons.
{More at www.al.com ]
|
